The Latest on Floridas Illegal Voter Purge

June 12 2012 at 3:59 PMNo score for this post

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The Latest on Floridas Illegal Voter Purge

Jun 12, 2012 | By ThinkProgress War Room

How Far Will Rick Scott Go to Steal the Election?
ThinkProgress has been leading the coverage of Florida Gov. Rick Scotts (R) effort to disenfranchise tens of thousands of potentially eligible voters, many of whom happen to be Hispanic and/or Democrats. As we know from past elections in Florida, this could easily steal the election for Mitt Romney.

Heres the latest on Florida Governor Rick Scotts illegal voter purge.

Florida Sues the Federal Government In Order to Continue Its Voter Purge
Yesterday, Scott announced that the state would be suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in order to gain access to a database to help it continue with its illegal purge.

DHS has expressed skepticism at allowing Scott to use its database called SAVE or Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements in order to suppress the vote, telling the Orlando Sentinel last week that the data is incomplete and does not provide comprehensive information on all eligible voters:

On Thursday, a senior DHS official, who would speak only on background, saidthe agency was waiting for Florida and the U.S. Justice Department to settle their dispute on whether Floridas purge violates federal voter-protection laws before allowing the state access the SAVE database. Only then would DHS consider access legally authorized, the official said.

Obviously, removing folks from the voter rolls is something we take seriously, said the official.

The DHS representative also cautioned that even if Florida could use SAVE, it would not paint a complete picture of who is a U.S. citizen as the list deals largely with green-card holders and naturalized citizens, and is not a comprehensive list of all Americans who have the right to vote.

The Department of Justice Sues Florida to Stop Its Unlawful Conduct
Not long after Florida announced its lawsuit yesterday, the Department of Justice in turn announced that Floridas refusal to stop its illegal voter purge left DOJ no choice but to file a lawsuit against the state in federal court.

In a letter sent to the Florida Secretary of State last evening, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez argued that Florida is violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Voting Rights Act. Please immediately cease this unlawful conduct, Perez wrote. The full text of the letter is available HERE.

Just hours ago, DOJ filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. You can read the complaint HERE.

Florida Election Supervisors Continue to Balk At Scotts Illegal Voter Purge
Even before the legal battle over Scotts plan heated up this week, all of Floridas election supervisors had halted any participation in the purge. Some counties have even already reinstated voters theyd already purged.

Even Republican election supervisors are having none of it. Republican Ann McFall, county supervisor of elections for Volusia County, told ThinkProgress that Scotts lawsuit against the federal government does not have her support and she will not resume purging voters before the elections, regardless of the suits outcome:

No I do not support the lawsuit. It is [about] helping the Governor and Secretary of State improve their image. I am not doing any further voter purge until after Nov 2012.

Mitt Romney Wont Say Where He Stands
As is often the case on controversial issues, Mitt Romney has thus far refused to take a stand on an issue that could be of direct benefit to him. Ditto for Florida Senator and potential vice-presidential nominee Marco Rubio.

Earlier today, Romney appeared at an event in Orlando and MoveOns 99 Percent Airlines took to the skies above the event to call out the purge:

Unlike Romney himself, top Romney fundraiser and surrogate Donald Trump is not one to shy away from controversy and this afternoon he tweeted his support for Scotts plan to disenfranchise untold numbers of eligible voters.

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